Dracula is Brilliant, not to be missed.

Rarely do you experience the raw terror, or feel the utter helplessness of the characters as they are pulled into the world which for them is unknown and frightening, a world inhabited by the terrors that hide inside nightmares, and at the same time we are mesmerised by production design and set that is stunning in how it moves the story along and brings with it a grace that enhances the values of the production exponentially , and becomes as essential in the story telling as the actors who play with it. #draculaau

This was 100 minutes of raw emotions, a spiral into the madness and horrors of a world we have no knowledge or control of. I’m writing this review Shake & Stir Theatre Co’s performance of Bram Stokers “Dracula” at the Griffith Regional Theatre at 10.30pm, an hour after the show finished and my heart is still pounding away like its been in a race across the country.

Shake and Stir Theatre Co previous productions of George Orwell’s “1984” and Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” were brilliant, new and innovative adaptions that grabbed the audience with an emotional intensity that was scary, challenging, and at the same time refreshing because it moved the audience to a new way of thinking about theatre. This retelling of Bram Stokers classic Gothic novel “Dracula” is stunning in every way as well. If you miss it, then I believe you will have missed one of the best live performance productions ever put on stage anywhere. Ok, I know its a big call to say it’s the best, Can I say though that I have seen a fair degree of theatre shows in my time (local and in the big cities) and I would have to say this beats the lot, even the big multi million dollar productions big name cast, technical wizardry and big sets, big stages and the best audio and lighting, but that they all fall a big way behind what we witnessed tonight.


We were spellbound, in fact I think we barely breathed, and I know that I was holding onto my seat pretty tight, we were transfixed from the very start to the very last bit of applause at the very end. As the audience left the theatre, everyone commented on they had just experienced. Experienced is the best word to describe what we were part of, because the creative team behind Shake And Stir Theatre Co, have delivered something that is not only a great story adaption, one that is pretty faithful to the novel, that I read in my teens, but all delivered a production that sets a new standard in theatre.

The story was developed around a series of letters, diary entries and newspaper articles, from the various perspective of the key characters, Lawyer Jonathan Harker, Count Dracula who resides in a rather grim castle in Transylvania and has been exploring he possible of relocating to some similar in England. Mina Harker is Jonathan's wife, and she is wondering when her husband will return, but she also has some big problems when her best friend Lucy announces she is going the marry Arthur, even though she has professed on many occasions that she loves Dr Seward a psychiatrist at the Insane Asylum located close to the new property Dracula is purchasing in England. The arrival of Dracula in England coincides with Lucy’s sudden illness and strange night time behaviour, and this brings in Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing, who quickly identifies the involvement of something nasty is on the loose. 

This production, a new adaption of the original novel, by Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij, sticks pretty close to the novel, and but with their mission to “motivate, educate and relate to youth via theatre and an infectious enthusiasm for the live arts” they essentially deliver a show that is cinematic, contemporary, moves along at a pace that would rival Indiana Jones and it also has the fight scenes, and special effects.

Josh McIntosh’s stage and set design, Jason Glenwright’s lighting design and Guy Webster’s sound design are spectacular. That this is touring production, and has a stage set up like this is even more amazing, because the artistic intent is to deliver a similar experience to every audience in every location.

I have never seen a set that moved so much and allowed the cast to move to so many levels, and while doing so, moved the story from location to location, room to room, country to country. It became one of essential characters on stage. It is a dark, dank and unsettling stage, as you settle into your seat, you sense the unease and that this is full of evil. The onstage action becomes a ballet of epic proportions as the set rotates and central stair case becomes one of the significant characters stage. The lighting design is impressive, and enhancing the sense of unease that pervades the stage, this coupled with the audio special effects, music and that heartbeat adds another layer to this impressive place the cast have to play and tell their story.

The staging of the production is stunning, A set that constantly moving and transforming, and then there is the lighting, smoke effects and the haunting audio design just to get you really on edge. 

I mentioned that this has a strong cinematic feel to it, to me I felt that the way the set, script and cast worked with each other and created a look, that from the audience perspective was like viewing the show as if through the lens of a cinema camera. Great long sweeping screen shots with cast delivering their story, without missing a beat, while climbing up and down stairs, into deep under ground crypts or along harbour foreshores. I was reminded very much of Aaron Sorkin’s “The West wing”, and those long single takes, with cast delivering long dialogues as they walked through offices in White House. 

But unlike television or cinema, on stage you don't get the chance to redo the scene if you fluff your lines, its got to work each and every time to step on the stage and this cast and its back stage creative team, deliver this on different stages each week, after they have bumped the set in, completed all the technical checks for lights and sound, which I was told took them around 12 hours, and that is what makes this such an amazing show. That commitment to delivering productions that are immense, spectacular and emotional intense certainly delivers big time on their mission.

the audience are, as by magic, taken from the theatre and  placed along with them into the world of 1897 and Dracula

But you can have the best technical wizardry and a show will fail if your cast can’t bring their characters to life and allow the audience to become emotionally invested in them.   No danger here this is an impressive ensemble and they work with an intensity that engages quickly with audience and then step into the the narrative with them. It can huge amount of time to get the same story from page to screen, each of the team on stage were in character and believable from the moment the narrative started. This is an impressive ensemble cast and they work with an intensity that engages quickly with audience.

Cinema Vs Theatre Stage 

You  can't help but reflect on how this play, developed from a classic novel,  has been brought to screen in many different guises. Each version more technically brilliant than the previous and so we never think that a stage play based on the same material could get close to how cinema and its computer aided design elements could be seen a as clear winner.   As we all know film can take months (even years) to get from actor playing in front of camera to an audience actually see that performance, edited into a range of other actors performances  all  shot out of sequence. [Film production is more often than not a non linear production process with the various elements that tell the story being pulled together on edit desk.]  A performance that was created from the various "takes": shot though the days and weeks of the film shoot all brought together by film director, film editor, (and maybe writer) spliced together  from a range of "takes" until its perfect,

Live theatre is a more raw, and immediate experience   The cast draw strength the script, the design of the set, the director and his interpretation of the story  and from the audience and how they respond to the unfolding story . What we saw Friday night as a troupe of creatives delivering a play that actually was able to deliver everything that the Dracula  films have done through the years, but in this live experience we were taken out of our seats and for 100 minutes, journeyed with these troupe of story tellers into the dark gothic world of eastern Europe, Gypsies, ancient legends and  the dark sinister world  Dracula and 1897. This play has all the elements of a big budget film including the fights scenes, vampires being able to throw victims high into the air, Vampires climbing head first down walls. Blood  blood blood, frightening claps of thunder and fierce lightening , plus locations, trains, dark and foreboding places, London fog ,  screams from the audience , and this was achieved with not one break, no intermission, no fluffed lines, no missed timing cues and no falling off the staircase! 

100 minutes on stage, live and it was a  constant, like a spiralling dervish getting more desperate and frantic, drawing us inevitably  to the finale.  Yet these actors were climbing stairs, ducking through caves, mountains, forests and all the while continuing with complex dialogue between characters. a brilliantly choreographed dance between actor,  set, lighting, music, effects and audience. 

The Players

Nick Skubij, Nelle Elle, Michael Wahr, Ross Balbuziente, Adele Querol, David Whitney  

Nick Skubij’s Dracula is a foreboding presence as he glides across and around the stage, he is everything to every body, erotic, seductive, powerful and intensely evil.  As Harker, Michael Wahr is able to bring both the English Gentlemen and also the increasingly disturbed to his character as his awareness of his predicament reveals itself. Mina played be Nelle Lee, transforms from enlightened and aware young woman to a seductive and vicious vampire. While Lucy, played delightfully by Adele Querol, moves from a dizzy young thing who falls in love with whoever smiles at her to vampire, its a performance that is chilling in execution, polite, scared, seducing, and then violent.

Dr Seward, a role that Ross Balbuziente really seems to revel in, his role plays jilted lover, concerned doctor, and then vampire hunter. He brings to his performance a huge range of emotions, which allows the audience to connect with his concerns with his patient Renfield and also at the loss of Lucy.

David Whitney gets the most fun though as the insane Renfield, who waits for the arrival of his master, chewing his way through flys, spiders, birds, cats and then as Vampire slayer Van Helsing. Here he delivers the comic lines and also the larger than life heroic saviour, at just the right time.

Michael Futcher, director of the production said this in an interview “Dracula represents, for me, that thing within everybody that we fear. What do we fear in the world today? A lot of different things, but there’s one thing that seems to be a kind of societal fear at the moment, is the fear of the outsider. And the fear of not being able to control this force, which is kind of getting its tentacles into everything - sounding familiar? Something that could kill us at any moment, randomly.”

Who are Shake & Stir Theatre Co?
Shake & Stir Theatre Co is co-owned by Nick, Nelle and Ross, that gives a huge clue as why their productions are light years ahead of other companies, they are prepared to challenge an audience with new and exciting stories, told in ways that could never have been imagined. They are also prepared to travel the nation and share these stores retold, and that to me has immense value, not only in delivering entertainment, but also showing how the Creative Arts add value to our life and are valid pathways for
future careetrs for our young people. Thank you team for an amazing experience.

Tickets are available for the Saturday evening show - contact the Griffith Regional Theatre Box office 02

6962 8444. for bookings or get your tickets online